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Tigers take two titles at Bob Smith
12/7/2009
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
In 2007-08, Blake Malloy finished 24-10 and reached the national tournament at 174 pounds as a junior wrestler for Fort Hays State University. Malloy, though, went 0-2 at nationals.
"I felt like I was too small and undersized for these guys," he said. "I made a choice. I felt like I needed to move down to (1)65."
Before 2008-09, Malloy told then first-year Tiger head coach Chas Thompson that he wanted to redshirt. In addition, Malloy wished to finish his career with good friends and fellow FHSU senior wrestlers Tommy Edgmon, Levi Younkin, Shawn Kuhlman, Tyler Gonzales and Danny Grater.
"That could be a very good team," Thompson said. "It's a gamble that we took and for right now, it's looking like a good one."
Malloy returned this winter and has been FHSU's top wrestler through three meets and one dual.
The 165-pounder is the lone Tiger to place at all three meets, including a championship at the Bob Smith Open on Saturday at Gross Memorial Coliseum.
"I am definitely a lot stronger than pretty much everybody out there," Malloy said. "I hate to be cocky about that, but I worked my butt off over the summer and it's paid off."
In addition, junior 141-pounder Andre Harrison picked up an individual title. Harrison finished 5-0, including a win in the championship against University of Nebraska-Omaha's Mario Morgan, 4-3, on ride time. Morgan finished third at NCAA Division II nationals last March and hadn't lost to a Division II wrestler this winter.
"He is the top dog in our weight and I beat him, so I couldn't ask for a better start," Harrison said.
Malloy and Harrison were the only two Tigers to place in a tournament that had 353 competitors and included elite Division II squads University of Nebraska-Kearney, University of Nebraska-Omaha and multiple Division I teams. Five champions came from Division I schools. Fort Hays also had a smaller roster. Grater, a two-time national qualifier and a ranked wrestler at 157 pounds, didn't compete Saturday.
"He could have wrestled," Thompson said. "He was wrestling on a banged up knee. It didn't bother him in the dual (Thursday). ... Going to take it easy for now."
Gonzales, a former national qualifier, defaulted because of shoulder problems. Junior 197-pounder Chance Rencountre and heavyweight Carl Wilkinson also defaulted. Thompson didn't want to risk further injury this early in the year.
"No reason when we have got these minor dings to injure ourselves more," Thompson said.
Malloy and Harrison, though, enjoyed fine tournaments and FHSU's first individual champions of the year. Malloy, who leads FHSU with three placings, has earned second place at the season-opening Central Missouri meet and sixth in the Elite Division at the Nebraska-Omaha Open before Saturday's win.
"Best guys in the country, it doesn't matter," Thompson said. "We saw that at Central Missouri. He can hang with them."
Harrison has two placings, second-best on the team, including a fifth at Central and a Bob Smith title.
Neither are nationally ranked, but both will likely be when the new rankings come out this week.
"They looked good," Thompson said. "They both had very solid tournaments. I am very happy with how they wrestled. I expect it out of them to wrestle like that. I wish the rest of the team had wrestled like that and we could have more placers and more guys in the finals, but it's a tough tournament."
Harrison, a Freeport, N.Y. native, is the FHSU's only wrestler on the roster who isn't from Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas or Nebraska. He earned junior college All-American honors.
"Coach Thompson, brought me in," Harrison said. "At first when I heard about it, I was like, 'Oh, Kansas.' Then, when I came out here and saw what it was, I was like, I actually like this place because I can focus on the things that are really important, which is wrestling and school."
Harrison redshirted last season behind All-American James Annon before moving into the starting lineup. On Thursday, he lost to University of Central Oklahoma's Scott Berens, 6-5, in a dual.
"Personally, coming into the tournament, what I really wanted was to avenge my loss from Thursday night and wrestle Mario Morgan in the finals," Harrison said.
Berens, though, lost out early. Harrison, No. 3 in the tournament, won his first four matches by technical fall, 10-9, 9-3, 7-4. In the final, Harrison was called for stalling twice before he defeated Morgan on riding time.
"In my mind, I kind of pictured winning 3-2," Harrison said. "I figured that he would get a stalling point because I have been called for stalling all tournament.."
Thompson, who has called Harrison a "darkhorse" and "under the radar" has purposefully kept quiet about the junior. After Saturday, though, Thompson realized that wasn't possible.
"That's a coming out for Andre," Thompson said. "He is going to be on people's radar for sure."
"(Morgan) has been whupping up on people since the season started and I just beat him," Harrison said. "I figure I should at least get the eighth or seventh spot (in the rankings)."
Malloy, the No. 1 seed in his weight class, won by fall, then picked up 5-2, 3-2 and 3-2 victories. In the title, he defeated Colby Community College's Bekzod Abdurakhmanov, 6-4. With the score tied at 4, Malloy earned two points in the first 15 seconds of the third period because of false starts.
"They have a new protocol for how they set us," Thompson said. "They set the bottom guy and then they set the top guy and then they blow the whistle. Usually they just say 'set' and it's really been tough on a lot of people, but for that to happen, that deep in the tournament, you figure the guy would have been used to it, so I don't know why."
Afterwards, Malloy raised his fists to celebrate another medal in an impressive early season.
"He is a horse," Harrison said. "He is probably one of the hardest working kids on the team as well. He doesn't give up anything as far as weight-wise. He is smart all the time. He eats healthy all the time. He is picture perfect. He does everything to the best of his ability."
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| 2/18 | SW Baptist | L 66-53 | |
| 12/1 | Oklahoma - Panhandle | L 66-60 (OT) | |